UNITED NATIONS, New York: The United Nations released $100 million on Friday for humanitarian emergencies in 10 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean.
Acting UN humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya said a lack of funding in these countries is preventing aid agencies from providing life-saving assistance, “and that is heart-wrenching.”
More than one-third of the new funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund known as CERF will go to Yemen, where a civil war is now in its 10th year, and Ethiopia, where government forces are fighting several rebel groups in its regions as well as ethnic-related insurgencies. Yemen is getting $20 million and Ethiopia $15 million.
Humanitarian operations in countries engulfed in years of conflict and displacement, exacerbated by climate shocks will also be getting funds: Myanmar ($12 million), Mali ($11 million), Burkina Faso ($10 million), Haiti ($9 million), Cameroon ($7 million) and Mozambique ($7 million).
So will two countries suffering severe food insecurity from an El Niño-induced drought and flooding, Burundi ($5 million) and Malawi ($4 million).
This was CERF’s second release of $100 million in emergency funding for humanitarian emergencies this year. In February, that money went to Chad, Congo, Honduras, Lebanon, Niger, Sudan and Syria.
But the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, which manages CERF, said the $200 million released this year is the lowest amount in the last three years, “underscoring the growing gap between humanitarian needs and the donor funding CERF receives to meet them.”
This year, the humanitarian community appealed for $49 billion to reach 187 million people in crises worldwide but has received just 29 percent, leaving a $35 billion gap, OCHA said.
In addition to releasing funds to the 10 countries on Friday, the UN and its partners have launched emergency appeals to reach 14.5 million people in southern Africa affected by El Niño: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
UN releases $100 million for humanitarian emergencies in 10 countries around the world
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UN releases $100 million for humanitarian emergencies in 10 countries around the world
- More than one-third of the new funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund known as CERF will go to Yemen
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
